Diaphragm buffer mechanism



Nov. 1, 1932. c. w. NICHOLAS DIAPHRAGM BUFFER MECHANISM Filed Nov. 25, 1951 Inueni'or C/Jar/es HUS/[cf] 0/85 Patented Nov. 1, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CHARLES VJ. NICHOLAS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO UNION METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE DIAPHRAGM BUFFER MECHANISM Application filed. November 25, 1931.

The invention relates to railway train parsenger cars and more particularly to upper bufier springs therefor. Upper buffer springs are used to keep the diaphragm face plates of adjacent passenger train cars in contact on either a straight or a curved track. Semi-elliptical springs are used for this purpose because they also can be arranged to keep the face plate in the center of the car and also maintain the face plate in its proper angular position. These semi-elliptical springs are rigidly or pivotally attached to the diaphragm face plate at their middle portion and have their extremities attached to the car in such a way as to obtain the above mentioned desired results.

A semi-elliptical spring can be positioned and attached on the outside of the car so that it is noiseless; easy to inspect; accessible for repairs and has a low maintenance cost.

It is common practice to attach the middle of a semi-elliptical spring to the diaphragm face plate and attach its extremities to the end wall of a car with a shackle arrangement having means to restrict the movement of the ends of the spring toward the center of the car. The spring may be reversed and still come within the scope of the invention; that is, the middle of the spring may be attached to the end wall of the car and the extremities of the spring to the diaphragm face plate.

The object of my invention is to provide means to yieldingly allow the shackle to swing with the compression of the semielliptical buffer spring, which means assists in returning the shackle to normal position when the pressure is released.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a plan of an upper diaphragm buffer mechanism with my invention applied thereon.

Fig. 2 is a partial front elevation of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-8 of Fig. 2.

In the drawing 1 is the end wall; 2 the diaphragm and 3 the diaphragm face plate, all of the usual construction. The semielliptical spring 4 is attached to the face plate by member 5 and bolt 6 or a pivoted con- Serial No. 577,269.

struction may be used to attach the spring to theface plate.

The shackle holder 7 is secured to the car in any desired manner and the shackle 8 is pivoted to the holder 7 by pivot pin 9 and semi-elliptical spring 4 is attached to the shackle 8 by pivot pin 10.

The coil spring 13 is positioned between the shackle 8 and the end wall I of the car and is held in position by the lugs 14 and 15. This spring 13 forms a yielding means which when the pressure is released or partially released from the semi-elliptic spring 4: forces the shackle 8 back to normal position.

The coil spring 13 is preferably positioned substantially in alignment with the longitudinal axis of the semi-elliptic spring 4.

The shackle is provided with stop 18 on one side to restrict or limitthe longitudinal movement of the spring toward the center of the car.

It is desirable to have the distance between the opposite outer pivots 10 greater than the distance between the opposite inner pivots 9 to assure an easy outward movement of the extremities of the spring when the spring is under compression.

The accompanying drawing illustrates the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof, within the scope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. In a railway car having an end wall and a diaphragm face plate, the combination of a bowed spring having its medial portion attached to said face plate, a shackle pivotally attached to each end of said spring, each shackle also being pivotally attached to said end wall, and yielding means between each of said shackles and said end wall.

2. In a railway car having an end wall and a diaphragm face plate, the combination of a bowed spring having its medial portion attached to said face plate, a shackle pivotally attached to each end of said spring, each shackle also being pivotally attached to said 100 end wall, yielding means between each of said shackles and said end wall, and means to restrict the expansion of said yielding means.

3. In a railway car having an end wall and a diaphragm face plate, the combination of a bowed spring having its medial portion attached to said face plate, a shackle pivotally attached to each end of said spring, each shackle also being pivotally attached to said end wall, the distance between pivots of the shackle and the spring being greater than the distance between the pivots of the shackle and the end Wall, and yielding means between each of said shackles and said end wall.

4. In a railway car having an end wall and a diaphragm face plate, the combination of a bowed spring having its medial portion attached to said face plate,-a shackle pivotally attached to each end of said spring, each shackle also being pivotally attached to said end wall, the distance between pivots of the shackle and the spring being greater than the distance between the pivots of the shackle and the end wall, yielding means between each of said shackles and said end, wall, and means to restrict the expansion of said yielding means.

5. In a railway car having an end wall element and a diaphragm face plate element, the combination of a bowed spring having its medial portion attached to one of said elements, a shackle pivotally attached to each end of said spring, each shackle also being pivotally attached to the other of said elements, and yielding means between each of said shackles and each of said other elements.

CHARLES W. NICHOLAS. 

